


Off or Through?

by nirvanics



Category: The Hobbit (2012), The Hobbit - All Media Types, The Hobbit - J. R. R. Tolkien
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Drabble, Family, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, omc that is only very briefly mentioned in passing but still, sons of durin
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-04-29
Updated: 2013-04-29
Packaged: 2017-12-09 21:58:17
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 531
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/778433
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nirvanics/pseuds/nirvanics
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>After the events at Beinn Chuirn, Bilbo retreats back to his flat with two bothersomingly fond young men who have a habit of speaking in riddles to each other.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Off or Through?

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [The Sons of Durin](https://archiveofourown.org/works/623138) by [KivrinEngle](https://archiveofourown.org/users/KivrinEngle/pseuds/KivrinEngle). 



“Key.”

Bilbo looked up from the newspaper he’d been scanning through, his eyebrows coming together ever so slightly at the single word that had been spoken. It had come from the kitchen, and Bilbo immediately recognized the voice as Fili’s. It was just one word, short and precise, like a declaration. …A declaration...of a  _key._

He had nearly convinced himself that he had simply imagined it when it came again, the quiet volume unchanging, but tone becoming just a little more insistent. That, Bilbo knew, had definitely been “key” and it took him perhaps a bit more off-guard than he would’ve been willing to admit. Perhaps it was his newfound paranoia. He had opened his mouth to call to the kitchen and ask if something was the matter, or if someone had lost their house-key, or  _something_  when Fili spoke again.

“Underground.”

Almost without pause, another voice followed, deeper set but with less of the authority as the first. Kili. “Smaller – bigger smell. _Bad._ ” Bilbo rose from his comfy chair with plush and worn arms that had the stuffing starting to leak out in places, feet barely making a sound as he took a few steps to the kitchen and the source of the conversation – if it could be called that. He simply stood there, only a few feet from his armchair, and listened.

“Not worst.”

Kili seemed to laugh at that, the sound bouncing off the walls. “Wi-fi.”

“Potholes!” Bilbo could hear Fili say, and he sounded a bit like he was losing a verbal fight and grasping for straws.

“Mikey?” Kili asked, and his voice was quiet. It wasn’t clear to Bilbo if this was even the same train of conversation.

“Good,” came the reply of Fili, hardly a beat between their responses. It was quick and all surd speech, and Bilbo entertained the thought that it was almost as if the two knew the conversation by heart, before it was going to happen, and they were simply reciting it as easy as breathing.

“Now?” Kili asked.

“Shot.”

“Off or through?”

“One, two,” Fili replied.

There was a pause, and Bilbo could hear a little shuffle, unable to see the movement in his half-journey to the kitchen. “…Oh,” was all Kili said.

He was thoroughly confused at this point, but managed to catch the idea. To many people, it may have been that Bilbo was simply missing entire sections of the conversation, a bit like when he heard someone talking on the telephone and only got half of what was being said. It happened often, really; these little conversations between the two brothers that didn’t make the slightest of sense to anyone else who was in the vicinity. Whatever the two were talking about, Bilbo had a feeling he had no meaning to know, and so he crept back to his comfy armchair and his newspaper that thankfully made no mention of the Sons of Durin, save for a two inch high column on page eleven. Bilbo shook his head (and if there was a fond smile on his face, there was no one to see it), as Fili and Kili filled the empty silence with comfortable murmurings.

**Author's Note:**

> This is the first fic I've written in more than a few years, but this idea plagued me while I was trying to sleep one night. It’s based off the Sons of Durin verse (which I hope KivrinEngle won’t mind!), where the little canon-ity comes up a few times that Kili and Fili speak in this odd sort of clipped English. 
> 
> This ended up with Kili eventually not learning proper English until he was around four, because Fili always knew what he wanted without normal speech, and it occasionally comes up in the story, even as young men.
> 
> Also on my tumblr, which includes some translation notes of Fili and Kili's speech (or at least what I had in mind when I wrote it): http://nirvanic-s.tumblr.com/post/48333670119/off-or-through-sons-of-durin-verse-gen


End file.
